ABSTRACT
Mexican women participate in the society in which they live, but their participation in politics nonetheless differs from that of men. Only 42 percent of Mexicans believe that men are better political leaders than women. Women's access to higher education is a recent development in cities, mainly among middle-class women whose earlier destiny was motherhood and marriage. The integration of women into political processes has often occurred in new groups, such as the Zapatistas, who included "The Revolutionary Law of Women" in their program. During the mobilization process between 1980s and 2000, women activists and social leaders joined political parties and founded public institutions created to benefit women. Finally, women members of social movements were legislators or candidates for political office. The great majority of these representatives came from the educated middle classes, leaving most women without representation. The entry of feminist activists allowed new relations with the women of the ecclesiastical base communities (CEBs) that acted at local level.
